I agree with you about the ugliness of the commercial areas. There is a place like about fifteen minutes from me. I worked at one of the places just after high school. It's really crummy that designers and builders won't do a litte more to increase the aesthetics. I guess they mostly just want to build a shelter for as little money as possible.

RichP - are tehy the ones featured in Kooyanisqatsi, blowing up in glorious slow motion?

Snoho - agreed on the ugliness of cheap factor. All it takes is a little something to improve things. And it sounds incredibly prissy to expect that modicum of something, but still...

The thing is - I've seen a lot of ugly industrial estates and wastes of land, especially from train windows. But I also think once a lot is properly abandoned and left to weeds and rocks and determined shrubs - then it actually starts looking more real again. Removing the human activity factor makes it somehow properly abandoned - like it could be in a Sprinsteen video or something. That's when I like it again.